The present invention relates generally to a computer software control and communication system for computer systems communicating via a communications bus.
Communication buses allow for the transfer of data among various processing and data storage mediums. Typical communication buses, such as for example, the Versa Module Eurocard 64 (VME64) bus, allow a plurality of hardware circuitry cards to be attached to a computer controllable backplane in order to allow communication to flow among the various hardware circuitry cards and the computer. These circuitry cards are conventional circuit boards containing electronic means for executing predetermined functions or a predetermined software program, such as for example, setting clock frequency, data transfer, data storage and executing test functions.
Communication buses are frequently employed by embedded systems. An embedded system can take on many forms, but is generally known by those of skill in the art to include a system in which a computer is built into the system, yet the user does not view the system as including the use of a computer. This can occur, for example, in a television set having one or more computer processors, yet the person using the television set does not realize the set includes such computers. An embedded system also includes a special purpose computer and control circuitry built into a device which is programmed for a particular purpose. Such systems include what are known as xe2x80x9cembedded processorsxe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9cembedded microcontrollers.xe2x80x9d Some examples of embedded systems include flight management systems, weapons systems, aircraft control systems, and avionics systems for the aerospace industry; manufacturing automation systems, manufacturing robots, chemical processing plants and refineries for the process control industry; car management systems for the automotive industry; and switches, routers and PBX systems for the communications industry.
When new or revised circuit cards are added to an existing system having a communications bus, often times it is difficult to communicate with the card. Sometimes this communication difficulty is due to misdirected software handshakes, faulty data transfers and in some cases, may be due to mismatched technology. In these cases, the software in the embedded system and perhaps the software in other cards must be reprogrammed to communicate with the new or revised circuit card. This process is time intensive, increases the complexity of the system, is costly and usually results in expending further development resources. Due to this deficiency in the prior art, a need exists for a common computer software control and communication system which allows a primary software means to communicate with new or revised circuit cards as needed. Such a system, as disclosed by the present invention, would reduce the design time and reduce the resources typically used when new or revised circuit cards are introduced into an existing system.
The following summary of the invention is provided to facilitate an understanding of some of the innovative features unique to the present invention, and is not intended to be a full description. A full appreciation of the various aspects of the invention can be gained by taking the entire specification, claims, drawings, and abstract as a whole.
The present invention relates to a computer system and method for facilitating bi-directional communication between a primary software means on a computer and at least one secondary software means, loaded on a computer circuit card, via a communications bus. Both the primary software means and the secondary software means both have predefined register storage space for storing data, and in particular, for storing data relating to system and fault status, among other things.
The present invention provides a simple, yet flexible system and method for communication between a primary processing means and secondary processing means which transfer data via a communications bus. The present invention finds applications in systems having hardware boxes (or xe2x80x9ccagesxe2x80x9d) that support dynamic reconfiguration of functionality every time the system is rebooted. In this fashion, upon each reboot of the system, the software means for directing can detect and communicate with each card in the system and adjust the functionality of each card accordingly if necessary to thereby provide a synergistic communications system.
The novel features of the present invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art upon examination of the following detailed description of the invention or can be learned by practice of the present invention. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description of the invention and the specific examples presented, while indicating certain embodiments of the present invention, are provided for illustration purposes only because various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those of skill in the art from the detailed description of the invention and claims that follow.